Horror Show
by thecivilunrest
Summary: Claire watches one of her first horror movies and Quil has to comfort her. One-shot.


**Disclaimer: I do not own anything. I wish I did. Maybe then I'd finally be rich! **

_Horror Show_

"Quil! Pleeeeeease watch the movie with me! Pleeeeeeeeeeeease!" Claire begged, giving me one of the best puppy dog faces that I have ever seen. Damn it. She should know better than to look at me like that, it's always just that much harder to say no to her when she does that.

"No," I told her, but I knew it was only a matter of time before I caved. Claire knew it too, but she refused to give up. After all, they say perseverance is a virtue.

Claire clasped both hands in front of her chest in a praying position and dropped down on her knees in front of me. Here was my Claire, the preteen Drama Queen. She wanted to be an actress when she grew up, and I had to hand it to her, she certainly was dramatic enough. She looked up at me with an expression that I was almost positive that she practiced in the mirror. "Quil. Please. I am _begging _you to watch this movie with me. If you don't then I'll end up freaking myself out more! Besides, you promised that we'd have Movie Night tonight, and it was my pick! _PLEASE._"

"Claire, do you remember what happened the last time we watched a scary movie?" I asked.

"No," she replied, too quickly. I had to bite my cheek to keep from smiling, because she obviously remembered. It hadn't even been that long ago, just six years.

Six years. Jesus, that makes me feel old.

"Well I do, vividly. You peed yourself, and then your mom made me clean it up. I don't want that to happen again." That had been one of the few times that I actually disliked taking care of Claire, because cleaning up someone else's pee from the couch was a messy and smelly business. Plus it was just plain disgusting.

"But Quillllll," she said, making the 'l' on my name drag out. "That was when I was seven! I was in only single digits then, and I didn't know what I was getting myself into. And it's your own fault for letting me watch it. You knew it was scary."

I didn't have anything to say to that. She was right, and she knew it. "Yes, but you wanted to watch it. You were begging me. Much like now, in fact. So this is a really bad case of deja vu and I refuse to have to clean up after you."

Claire looked at me indignantly. "I am _not _going to pee myself again. How can you even say that?" She got up and brushed the dust off of her jeans. "Quil, honestly, it's my pick and last week I watched that stupid godmother movie with you."

"_The Godfather_ is not a stupid movie!" I argued, but she silenced me with a look. It really was amazing how well she was able to do that, even though she was still young. I could only imagine what those looks would be like when she got older.

"Quil, I'm going to be the only one of my friends that hasn't seen it yet, and I need to."

"Why don't you just watch it with your friends then?" I asked, knowing that things were soon going to turn in her favor. When she got serious and calm about things was when I knew that I was in trouble. I could handle the whiny and kiddie Claire, but not this serious grown up one. Even though she didn't know that this was a weapon and still didn't take advantage of it, it was still true.

She looked surprised. "But I am watching it with a friend. I'm watching it with you! So please? Please?"

I sighed, and she clapped her hands in excitement, going back to the thirteen year old that I knew and loved. "Fine," I told her. "But if you end up peeing yourself make sure to do it in the toilet, okay?"

"Okay," she said cheerfully and went to go get the DVD from her room.

"What movie is this anyway?" I asked. I actually didn't know, but as soon as she said 'horror' I knew that we were going to have a problem.

"_Carrie._ A new adaption from that Stephen King novel," she said, practically skipping down the hallway.

"Oh, I remember watching that one when I was younger. Yeah, we can watch it I guess."

"Cool!" Claire beamed at me. "This is the newer version with all sorts of new special effects. Jason told me that it was really good and that I should totally watch it. So I thought it would be a good one for Movie Night, you know?"

"Sure, I guess. Pop it in."

She did so, and as the previews began I went to get the popcorn and then I looked at her throughout the previews. I mean really _looked _at her, the way that I hadn't in years.

I took in the badly applied eyeliner (she had just started wearing the stuff and I was sure that her mother was going to teach her how to put it on properly soon enough because that was _not_ my territory), chipped neon pink fingernails, and the braces that marked the preteen years.

And then I noticed the other things about her, the things that told me that Claire was growing up and that she wasn't going to be young forever. The way she had shot up at least four inches in the last year, the slight curves that weren't exactly noticeable yet but that were getting there, and the way that her face was no longer as young looking as it used to be. Even now the way that she crossed her legs and casually pushed her hair behind her year reminded me of the easy grace of a real woman.

I didn't want to think about Claire growing up, but it was so evident that she was. For one thing now she got into fights with her mother all of the time. She also listened to really bad screamo music just so that she didn't have to listen to her parents call her name, and the way that she suddenly grew out of the 'All Boys Except Quil Have Cooties' phase and was now boy crazy. She currently had a huge crush on a boy named Jason and he was all that she could talk about.

"It's about to start!" she said excitedly, the way that she did every time a movie began, even in the theaters. It was nice to know that some things never changed. She smiled at me brightly. "Thanks, Quil. If I had to watch this by myself I probably really would pee myself. Jason told me that it was really, really scary."

"Glad to be of service," I told her and she smiled at me again before paying attention to the screen.

I wasn't really watching the movie. I already knew what was going to happen. Girl has some sort of freaky powers and is a total outcast at school and gets pig blood poured on her head. She then massacres the entire prom and kills her mother. Not exactly something that held much interest with me, even though at one time that it did.

Instead I was watching Claire. Claire was one of those people that as soon as the first ten minutes of a movie started she was instantly sucked in and kept there until the movie was over. She got really into the characters and their problems, and cried when they cried, laughed when they laughed, and generally was just expressive throughout the entire movie. It was one of the reasons that I hated watching tragic love stories with her, because she would eventually end up bawling her eyes out.

Cinema was a sort of magic that enraptured her and that was one of the reasons that she wanted to be an actress. She had already been in a few community plays over in Port Angles, but she was soon wanting more. They scared me, these big dreams that she was dreaming, because it meant that she would pull far away from me and eventually not want me in her life anymore. Aside from the whole 'imprinter imprintee relationship' thing I didn't know what I would do. Claire had practically been very firmly in my life ever since she was two years old.

All of a sudden she grabbed my hand and then quickly let go, dragging me away from my majorly emo thoughts. And so it had begun. She was already freaked out. Her eyes where the size of dinner plates and her mouth was in a straight line.

I had to look away so that she wouldn't see me smile widely. Her expression was priceless, but I had known that this would happen. I hadn't thought that it was that scary the first time that I had watched it, but then again the graphics back in my day where not nearly as good as they were in Claire's. All of the things that had looked fake, like the mythical creatures and the like, in movies back when I was Claire's age now looked very real. There was very little that they could recreate and it still didn't look entirely real.

"Are you okay?" I whispered, knowing that if I spoke normally she'd either tell me to be quiet or she'd jump.

Claire nodded slowly her eyes still huge. I bit my cheek so hard that it bled before it healed again simply to keep from laughing. I had known this was going to happen. I _knew _it. She should have listened to me, but then again she almost never listened to me.

That was how we spent the rest of the movie, her in terror and me trying so hard not to laugh. God, I should never have let this happen. I should have stood my ground and told her that this would happen. Maybe she should have watched this with _Jason_. Maybe I was jealous of him because he was taking Claire away from me. What a thought.

The ferocity of the thought surprised me, but then I realized that I was being stupid. I had barely met the kid, even though I knew that he came over often for 'study dates'.

Claire whimpered, her eyes still glued on the screen. She was mesmerized and had not been able to tear her eyes away. Now that she was horrified she definitely wouldn't have take them off the television. I had learned this from the last time we watched a scary movie.

Claire didn't scream when she became frightened, instead she stood extremely still and wouldn't budge. This reminded me of the one time a snake had crossed her path in the front lawn. I had to physically carry her away because she was so terrified.

Then the end credits rolled and I quickly shut off the television so that we wouldn't have to watch any extras or anything like that. Claire stared blankly at the empty screen before moving her eyes to me.

She then burst into tears and began sobbing saying, "I don't ever want to go to prom, Quil! Never, ever, ever! I promise I won't go, I promise," over and over again.

It would have been really funny if it wasn't Claire. I once again had to hold back laughter as I awkwardly patted her on the back. I was still mentally (and physically) a seventeen year old guy, I would mature for Claire later, and it was still weird for me to try and comfort a sobbing thirteen year old girl.

"It's okay," I told her soothingly, my voice cracking from the strain of not laughing. This was too much, really. "I told you not to watch it!"

"I k-k-know!" she blubbered, eyes red and eyeliner smeared. "But I didn't listen! I'm s-s-sorry. You knew I shouldn't have watched it."

"Yeah, pretty much. But that's okay. And now you know that it isn't a good thing to poor pig's blood on people, am I right?"

Claire sniffed before cracking a smile. I took this all in, realizing that this might be one of the last times that she would let me save her from herself.

**A/N: This is pretty much the way I acted when I saw **_**Carrie **_**for the first time too, except I cried to my mother and not a hot werewolf. How sad is that? It's one scary movie! This turned out slightly more thoughtful than I thought that it was going to be at first. But I hope you guys liked it anyway, and thought that my attempt at humor wasn't _too _horrible. **


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